📋 Tender Overview
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A Joint SDG Fund programme in Serbia is supporting the Government and public institutions to make digital public services more accessible, inclusive and responsive to how people actually use them. The initiative is working with citizens through research, prototyping and usability testing, and it is strengthening the skills of civil servants to continuously improve services.
The programme, described by the UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia, has involved more than 200 citizens in feedback and testing and more than 150 civil servants in training and service redesign. Its goal is to strengthen the capacity of institutions to listen, test and make improvements themselves, so that online procedures work better for people navigating real-life barriers, including those facing social welfare needs, rural livelihoods and accessibility challenges.
Background: digital access depends on usability
Online public services often fail at the decisive moment when users must interpret instructions, choose the right options, or resolve a problem during an application process. In the UNs description of the programme, small usability issues can prevent people from completing forms or accessing support.
The programme therefore treats public-service improvement as more than technology delivery. It focuses on product design practices--such as user experience (UX) research and accessibility testing--so that service development better reflects everyday user circumstances.
Programme approach: shared UN expertise and national ownership
The Joint SDG Fund-supported work in Serbia brings together UN agencies with different technical and thematic expertise. According to the UN Sustainable Development Group story, the programme is led by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), working closely with Serbias Office for IT and eGovernment and other national institutions.
The initiative supports service improvements in multiple domains, including social welfare, agriculture and eGovernment. It also emphasizes coordination among UN partners: lessons from testing one service can inform improvements in others, while accessibility concerns can be addressed alongside administrative procedures.
What is being implemented in Serbia
The UN describes several concrete elements of the programme:
Citizen involvement through research, prototyping and usability testing to identify where users encounter difficulties.
Civil service capacity-building, including training in product management, user research, accessibility and service improvement, delivered through direct involvement in redesign work.
Development of an AI-enabled social welfare assistant supported by UNICEF, with attention to inclusion and vulnerable groups.
Redesign of Serbias eAgriculture platform to bring farmers and rural communities needs into the process, supported by FAO.
Support for inclusive digital transformation approaches and standards, contributed by ITU.
In addition, the programme is establishing institutional mechanisms intended to outlast a project timeline. The UN reports that a permanent User Experience (UX) team has been established within the Office for IT and eGovernment. It also states that an eGovernment Design System has been formally mandated for all new services developed by the Office, aiming to provide a common foundation for more consistent and usable government portals.
A dedicated UX Lab is also planned so that citizens can test new digital services before they are introduced.
Listening as a design requirement
The UN story highlights the importance of engaging diverse user groups, including older citizens, whose needs and experiences may differ from those of the teams designing services. The feedback captured through testing is presented as practical evidence for decisions--helping institutions identify unclear instructions, registration difficulties or steps that assume users already have knowledge.
Beyond service redesign, the programme supports integrating people-centred design principles into Serbias broader legal and policy framework. The aim, as described by the UN Resident Coordinator, is to make user research, testing and feedback a regular part of how public services are developed.
Why the initiative matters for public services
The UN positions the catalytic value of Joint SDG Fund support as most visible in the institutional skills, teams and standards it helps establish. With government ownership emphasized as central, the programme seeks to ensure that improvements in how services are designed and tested continue beyond the period of external support.
The UNs measure of progress focuses on whether more people can use public services with greater ease and confidence.
Key Details
Initiative or programme: Digital Service Design Hub: Clicking Together with Citizens (people-centred digital public services support)
Lead organization: UN Development Programme (UNDP) (with UN UNICEF, FAO and ITU)
Partners: Serbias Office for IT and eGovernment; other national institutions
Funding amount: Not specified in the supplied source
Geographic focus: Serbia
Target groups: Citizens using digital public services; civil servants involved in service redesign; vulnerable groups included in social welfare support
Duration or timeline: Not specified in the supplied source
Expected reach or outcomes: More than 200 citizens involved in research, prototyping and usability testing; more than 150 civil servants trained; establishment of a permanent UX team and a mandated eGovernment Design System; planned UX Lab for pre-launch citizen testing
Why This Matters
This update highlights how development partners are operationalizing people-centred digital transformation in a way that connects usability, accessibility and public administration practice. For NGOs and development p
